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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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I think the WSJ article was probably an unforced error on their part. They have no way of proving the fidelity of this alleged document in court without burning their source, and there really is no journalistic justification for source anonymity in this case either. Selective leaking of documents involved in a criminal investigation are not something a responsible publication should be doing. I know many do it. And Watergate is, for some reason, considered peak journalism. But really this sort of thing is peak hackery.

If the letter is real, then showing the letter itself will lend a certain amount of legitimacy without giving up the source. It won't be proof but it would be a whole lot more believable.

The WSJ is going to have a copy of the letter they can carbon date to 2003? Anything less than that with a good COC is useless. Dozens of people have already made convincing hoaxes using the WSJ's piece as source material.